France

On most days, I find myself smiling without noticing. I spend most days doing nothing much at all: writing, reading, practicing my baby French and cooking classic French grandmother recipes. I check out new art exhibitions, I write my newspaper column, I drink sangria in backyards. I sip noisettes in cafés as I writes lists for everything I want my life to be. … [Read more...] about Paris Expat: The Reality of Life in France

After lunch, we pulled over to take pictures of ponies. Despite a valiant search, we couldn’t find any stables and thus I was unable to ride horses down the beach- which was clearly my preconceived fantasy of spending the day on a beach-filled French island. … [Read more...] about Ile de Re, France’s Most Adorable Island

Eric Tabanou, director of the France Tabac, factory in the Dordogne region of southwest France, said keeping the country's last tobacco processing site open became unviable. AFP/Mehdi FEDOUACH Anti-smoking campaigners may cheer its demise, but for its workers and local tobacco growers, the closure of the France Tabac factory after 34 years of operation is a devastating blow to the Dordogne region of southwest France. … [Read more...] about Final puffs for France”s last tobacco factory

The next morning we started cooking early to prepare for the birthday party of Catherine’s 11-year old nephew. In honor of the festivities, Olivier made his signature scallops with crème fraîche and mushrooms, which he flambéed with Armagnac. Flambéing is really as simple as take pan off of flame, pour in alcohol and light contents of pan on fire. Who knew! … [Read more...] about Two Days at a 200-Year Old French Apple Farm

"The people demonstrating will be doing it more out of moral conviction, a sense of duty, rather than to try to make the government back down," said Yann Raison de Cleuziou, a sociologist who has studied the conservative Catholic movement against the family reforms. … [Read more...] about French to protest pro IVF law for single women, lesbians